James Bond

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James Bond (also known as 007) is a fictional British Secret Intelligence Service agent, created in 1952 by writer Ian Fleming. Despite Fleming's death in 1964, publication and reprinting of James Bond stories continued. Various other authors have written Bond stories.

Bond's actions are spectacular and he enjoys a plush lifestyle, although operationally, he tends to be neither secret nor servile nor especially intelligent. He is a serial womaniser, a borderline alcoholic, a compulsive gambler, and a public school snob.

Although the books were a worldwide phenomenon, James Bond is best known from the Eon Productions film series, 24 of which have been made as of 2023. Bond has been portrayed in these films by actors Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan, and Daniel Craig. Recurring characters in the series, mainly Bond's SIS colleagues, have been played by Bernard Lee, Lois Maxwell, Judi Dench, Colin Salmon, and others. Playing the "Bond Girl" or the "Bond Villain" has come to be seen as a career highlight in the acting profession. Among the more memorable of these performances have been those by Ursula Andress, Honor Blackman, Halle Berry, Robert Shaw, Lotte Lenya, Harold Sakata, Gert Frobe, Richard Kiel, and Donald Pleasance who was the first to openly play Bond's arch-enemy Ernst Stavro Blofeld.^[1]

The first Bond novel was Casino Royale, but the first book to make it to the big screen was Dr. No, filmed in 1962 with Sean Connery as James Bond. At the time, the rights for Casino Royale were unavailable, and the holders eventually made a spy spoof in 1967 very loosely based on Fleming's book, starring David Niven and Peter Sellers. Eventually, the rights to Casino Royale were made available to the producers of the film franchise, and 2006's Casino Royale appeared with Daniel Craig as 007, in a more faithful adaptation of the book. Another rights issue arose with 1965's Thunderball, which was remade some years later in an unofficial production with Connery, Never Say Never Again.

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